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Church in South Korea sees 24% rise in baptisms Skip to content The number of baptisms in South Korea increased by 24% in a year, according to statistics published Wednesday by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea.  Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, South Korea. kallerna via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). A total of 51,307 people were baptized in the East Asian country in 2023, compared to 41,384 in 2022. Although the year-on-year rise is sharp, annual baptisms remain well below pre-pandemic levels, when there were more than 80,000 baptisms a year. The “Statistics of the Catholic Church in Korea 2023” report, published April 24, broke down baptisms into three categories: children, adults, and “baptisms in danger of death.” The 51,307 people who were baptized in 2023 consisted of 12,832 c...

Pope Francis is also expected at the end of September in Belgium, where he is scheduled to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the University of Louvain, which has been divided into two different linguistic entities since the 1960s. The Holy Father told Mexican television network Televisa last December that he intended to travel to Belgium in 2024. According to a source familiar with the planning of papal trips, Pope Francis’ trip to Louvain could be postponed to 2025. The postponement of the journey would leave room at the end of September for the visit to the United Nations. During his planned stay in Belgium, Pope Francis will also celebrate Mass at the national shrine of Koelkenberg. There are also rumors that the pontiff will stop in Luxembourg, one of the small nations favored by the ...

Pope Francis pleaded for peace worldwide amid ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, telling CBS News on Wednesday that “a negotiated peace is better than a war without end.”  “Please. Countries at war, all of them, stop the war. Look to negotiate. Look for peace,” the pope, speaking through a translator, told “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell during an hourlong interview at the guest house where he lives in Rome.  The pontiff frequently talks about the Israel-Hamas war in his addresses. He made a strong appeal for a cease-fire in Gaza and a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine during his Easter Sunday Mass earlier this month.  He said Wednesday that he calls parishioners in Gaza every day to hear what...

After his fall from virtual grace, the apologetics ‘expert’ to be replaced by lay character. Father Justin, we hardly knew ye. Less than two days after debuting an artificial intelligence (AI) priest character to overwhelmingly negative reviews, Catholic Answers has given “Father Justin” the virtual heave-ho. The lay-run apologetics and evangelization apostolate, based in El Cajon, California, told the Register that it will replace him on its app with a lay character named “Justin” within a week. “We won’t say he’s been laicized, because he never was a real priest!” Catholic Answers said in a written statement to the Register late Wednesday afternoon. “We chose the character to convey a quality of knowledge and authority, and also as a sign of the respect that all of us at Catholic Answers...

Texas Carmelites reject oversight of Vatican-appointed federation Skip to content Carmelite nuns at a Texas monastery say they will not accept the Vatican’s designation of a U.S. Carmelite federation to oversee them, amid an ongoing dispute with their local bishop. An April 20 statement from the Arlington Carmel described the entrustment of their monastery to the Carmelite Association of Christ the King as “a hostile takeover that we cannot in conscience accept.” “To accept this would risk the integrity of our monastery as a community, threatening the vocations of individual nuns, our liturgical and spiritual life and the material assets of the monastery,” the statement said. “Accordingly, neither the President of the Association of Christ the King, nor any delegate of hers, is welcome to ...

Regina Coeli Regina coeli, laetare, alleluia.Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia.Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia. V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia. Oremus: Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui Domini nostri Iesu Christi mundum laetificare dignatus es, praesta, quaesumus, ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae.Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen. Regina Coeli  Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia. The Son whom you merited to bear, alleluia,has risen as he said, alleluia.Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia!For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia. Let us pray O God, who through the resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, did vouchsafe to give joy to the...

Who was Helena Kmiec? Servant of God Helena Agnieszka Kmiec was born on Feb. 9, 1991, in Krakow. She was the second daughter of Jan Kmiec and Agnieszka Bejska. Her mother died just a few weeks after she was born. Her father later married Barbara Zając, and Kmiec was raised “in a home full of love, warmth, and, above all, deep faith,” the edict noted. Beginning in 1998, she attended primary and secondary schools run by the Association of Catholic Educators in Libiąż, Poland. She then spent two years on a scholarship in the United Kingdom. From 2009–2014 she studied engineering at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland. The edict noted that Kmiec went “to holy Mass almost every day while she was a student, which for her was a very important time of the day.” At the universi...

“While I applaud the NAIA’s recent decision to ban biological men from women’s sports, I am deeply disturbed that the NCAA is ignoring the facts and failing to do the same,” Tenney added. “Women fought hard to earn the critical protections of Title IX, and we must continue to protect these opportunities for generations to come. I am dedicated to defending the future of women’s sports and providing a level playing field for all female athletes.” The letter praises the NAIA decision, stating it “appropriately recognizes the natural advantages that biological men have in certain athletic competitions.” It asks Baker “to reconsider [the NCAA’s] current policy that allows biological males to deprive women of a fair opportunity to compete and achieve athletic success.”  “All women in NCAA-a...

Cardinal Müller told author Rod Dreher that the attempt to shut down the conference was ‘like Nazi Germany.’ BRUSSELS — Belgium’s highest court ruled late last night that a conference upholding conservative values in the public square could go ahead in the country’s capital after a Brussels district mayor had ordered police to shut it down yesterday.  Emir Kir issued the order to halt the National Conservatism conference that was scheduled to take place April 16-17 and which featured among its speakers the Vatican’s former doctrinal chief, Cardinal Gerhard Müller.  Police surrounded the venue on Tuesday, denying access to speakers and guests.  The conference, organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation, a public affairs institute, aims to promote conservatism as “inextricably t...

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Iraqi cardinal returns to Baghdad after 9-month absence Skip to content Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako returned to Baghdad Wednesday at the personal invitation of the country’s prime minister, nine months after leaving the Iraqi capital. Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, pictured during a June 2023 visit to London, England. © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk. The leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church left Baghdad in July 2023, in protest at a decision by Iraq’s president to rescind a 2013 civil decree recognizing him as the head of Chaldean Catholics and the person responsible for its assets. Share The Chaldean Catholic Church is one of the 23 autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the pope. It has over half a million members in more than a dozen c...